New Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal made his way through a crowd during a protest in New Delhi, Jan. 20.

Delhi’s chief minister and self-proclaimed anarchist Arvind Kejriwal has threatened to quit if the state’s legislative assembly fails to pass new laws that were central to his party’s election campaign. The ultimatum is the latest quandary for the Congress party, which lends outside support to Mr. Kejriwal’s government in Delhi, as it tries to manage its unpredictable ally.

Mr. Kejriwal, whose Aam Aadmi Party came to power in December on an anti-graft ticket, said in a television interview with NDTV Sunday that he would resign, bringing down the Delhi government, if two laws – the Jan Lokpal bill for the creation of a strong anti-corruption ombudsman in Delhi and the Swaraj bill for more decentralized governance – are not passed in the coming days.

The national Congress-led government has invoked an executive order passed in 2002, that says the Delhi legislature cannot pass laws without its approval. Mr. Kejriwal says this diktat is arbitrary and contravenes the Constitution, and he has written to the federal home ministry refusing to take prior permission to pass the bill.

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“It is completely unconstitutional,” said Mr. Kejriwal. “If the home ministry passes unconstitutional orders, we will not follow it.”

Mr. Kejriwal said he will bring both bills to the legislative assembly on Feb. 13. The law for decentralizing governance will come to a vote on Feb. 15 and the anti-corruption law the following day.

With only 26 of 70 seats in Delhi’s legislative assembly, and the speaker’s casting vote, AAP can’t pass these bills on its own. It needs the support of the state’s Congress party, which has eight seats and had promised to support Mr. Kejriwal’s government during key votes, or of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.

But the BJP accused him of using the threat of resignation to push through a law that hasn’t been properly scrutinized and said Mr. Kejriwal was brushing aside legislative procedure. Harsh Vardhan, a leader of the BJP in Delhi, said that laws, including the 2002 order, had to be followed if they apply in this case. He added that Mr. Kejriwal should circulate both bills among members of the assembly “so that they can study it.”

“As of today I haven’t read a single clause out of it,” Mr. Vardhan told The Wall Street Journal.

The latest altercation over the passage of new laws marks an additional challenge for Congress, which has battled to walk a tight line between support and criticism for the AAP since pledging to lend it support.

Despite bitter confrontations between the two that have more than once embarrassed Congress, that party has stopped short of withdrawing its backing.

Last month, Mr. Kejriwal held an overnight street protest against the Congress-led central government to demand greater accountability in Delhi’s police force. After nearly two days of brinkmanship that brought parts of the national capital to a standstill, the standoff was resolved by an apparent compromise formula between the parties that partially met Mr. Kejriwal’s demands.

There have been other differences of opinion too. In just over a month in office, the Delhi government has reversed a policy championed by Congress to allow foreign investment in the state’s retail sector and ordered an investigation into officials of the previous government in Delhi when it was led by the Congress party’s Sheila Dikshit, in connection with alleged corruption in the organization of the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Mr. Kejriwal has also described the vice president of the national Congress party Rahul Gandhi as corrupt and dynastic.

In turn, Congress has criticized Mr. Kejriwal and his administration’s policies, but has continued to prop up his government. Analysts say the party’s political maneuvering in Delhi is part of an election strategy ahead of national polls to be held by the end of May. Congress fears that if it pulls support, the AAP and its leader Mr. Kejriwal, might be seen as victims, vastly improving their prospects in national polls, some say.

In an interview with The Times of India published Monday, Yogendra Yadav, a senior AAP leader, was quoted as saying that Mr. Kejriwal could possibly be the party’s candidate for prime minister in national polls.

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